Qiao Chu raised her brows confidently. “Isn’t that the case?”
She would admit to being vicious and money-grubbing, but when it came to looks—please. She’d never lost a fight in that department.
A strange flicker crossed Shang Shixu’s eyes. He reached over to the storage rack and took out a mirror.
Qiao Chu glanced at it casually—and nearly dropped to her knees on the spot.
The smeared smoky eye makeup made her look like a national-treasure panda. Her wet hair clumped into messy strands, false lashes stuck together, and her face was plastered with fluorescent glitter.
Ugly in the most flamboyant way possible.
Compared like this, Shang Shixu was no toad at all—he was practically an otherworldly male bodhisattva, untouched by mortal dust. Even the fabric over his chest was still glittering.
That was Qiao Chu’s makeup and lipstick she’d rubbed onto him earlier.
“Heh. An ugly duckling with a toad—pretty well matched.”
Qiao Chu: “Heh. Hehehe. Hehehehe.”
Matched my ass! The female lead would be delivering warmth any day now. When that time came, who knew whose face would change faster than flipping a book—he’d probably be coaxed into a daze by nothing more than a bowl of plain congee.
The scheme were crystal clear to Qiao Chu. Shang Shixu taking her away tonight was simply because he couldn’t tolerate his fiancée embarrassing him with his illegitimate brother.
What would truly move him was the female lead’s purity and kindness, her perseverance and unwavering resolve—treasures no amount of money could buy.
Qiao Chu sighed. “A woman reeking of copper like me is never going to walk the same road as you. Let’s spare each other.”
Shang Shixu frowned and lowered the car window slightly. “All I smell is booze and cigarettes from a drunk. And I know how to make hangover soup.”
Qiao Chu’s uncooperative stomach: grrrr—
Damn it! She hadn’t even eaten the shredded pork noodles with pickled greens she ordered!
All Shang Shixu’s fault. Petty man, obsessed with saving face, making her suffer for nothing!
“Stop the car. I’m hungry.”
He scoffed lightly, his low, magnetic voice making her ears tingle. “Craving toad meat?”
Qiao Chu’s eyes lit up. “Great idea! There’s an amazing fresh chili bullfrog place up ahead. Xiao Cheng, please turn right at the intersection and take me there.”
Assistant Cheng replied without hesitation, “You got it, Miss Qiao!”
Shang Shixu spoke coolly, “You’re quite smooth at ordering my driver around.”
Qiao Chu said solemnly, “Husband and wife are like branches from the same tree. Fresh chili bullfrog should be eaten together.”
Half an hour later, the slightly unhinged Qiao Chu and the impeccably dressed Shang Shixu were sitting at a roadside bullfrog joint where a meal averaged sixty yuan per person—feasting with gusto.
Well, to be precise, Qiao Chu was feasting with gusto.
In the pot, red oil bubbled, floating with vivid green and red chilies, green Sichuan peppercorns, and shredded ginger. The aroma was irresistible, the frog meat snowy white and tender.
Shang Shixu held his chopsticks, hesitating.
Qiao Chu couldn’t stand to see someone suffer. She slapped his chopsticks away. “You’ve got stomach problems—you can’t eat greasy, spicy food. Don’t make your fiancée worry.”
“So you’re planning to let your fiancé go hungry?”
Qiao Chu grinned and called toward the kitchen, “Boss, one plate of scrambled eggs with tomatoes, and a can of Want Want milk!”
Shang Shixu said, “When he took you out to fool around, this is what he fed you?”
“He,” of course, referred to Shang Shi’an.
Lately, Qiao Chu had been inseparable from Shang Shi’an. Not only was gossip flying around Dillon Academy, even the major families were buzzing about it.
As the legitimate fiancé, Shang Shixu had received no shortage of tattling.
That was why he’d shown up so promptly tonight. If he’d been any later, Qiao Chu might have been tricked into a hotel room by that bastard.
Qiao Chu gnawed on a frog leg, her eyes darting around.
“Yep, absolutely! All taught by Shang Shi’an—smoking, drinking, gambling. He forced me! Said if I didn’t do it, he wouldn’t play with me!”
Shang Shixu’s expression grew serious. “You’re simple-minded. He’s not as straightforward as you think. Stay away from him from now on, or else…”
Or else, the only way he’d feel at ease would be to keep her by his side.
Marriage.
That didn’t seem like such a bad option.
Shang Shixu’s brows relaxed as he picked up a piece of frog meat and put it in his mouth.
Spicy, numbing, savory—the flavor exploded on his tongue. It was good. Something he’d never tried before. Even if the ingredients were cheap and the cooking rough.
Good was good. Nothing else mattered. Even if his stomach hurt, he’d eat.
Qiao Chu, who intended to monopolize the food: “……”
“Boss, please cook another two jin. My fiancé eats more than a pig.”
Shang Shixu glanced at the little mountain of bones piled on her plate and merely smiled without saying a word.
After the late-night snack, Shang Shixu sent Qiao Chu back to the Qiao family’s old residence.
Tonight was actually the fiftieth birthday banquet of Qiao Chu’s cheap, scumbag father—Qiao Qihong.
Qiao Chu had deliberately stayed away and gone out drinking and clubbing just to piss the old man off.
Every family had its own hard-to-read scripture, and the Qiao family was no exception. After his first wife passed away, Qiao Qihong quickly remarried, and his second wife bore him a precious heir—a treasured son to carry on the family name.
In addition to her half-brother, Qiao Zhenjia, Qiao Chu also had a stepsister with no blood relation at all. After Wang Qiuxia remarried into the family, she brought her daughter along, who was renamed Qiao Yue.
The stepmother was adept at hypocrisy and playing to the wind—gentle, submissive, the perfect virtuous wife and mother in front of Qiao Qihong, while behind the scenes she deployed endless underhanded schemes.
The vast Qiao household had completely turned into a battlefield of deep waters and raging domestic strife.
All because Qiao Qihong had drawn up his will long ago, leaving all his assets to Qiao Chu, as consolation to his late wife who had shared hardships with him.
Qiao Chu’s mission in this world was to crush the stepmother trio, reclaim the massive fortune that rightfully belonged to her—and keep eighty top-tier male models.
System: 【80? Are you sure?】
Qiao Chu: “A person should have dreams! What if I actually achieve it?!”
This mission seemed to have nothing to do with the female lead, but in the original story, the Qiao family’s fortune eventually ends up in the hands of the female lead, Jiang Yixuan.
Jiang Yixuan and Qiao Yue are actually twins—born to stepmother Wang Qiuxia and her previous husband.
Wang Qiuxia disliked Jiang Yixuan, thinking she wasn’t as outstanding as Qiao Yue. So when she married into the wealthy family, she decisively abandoned Jiang Yixuan, only taking the “obedient girl” Qiao Yue with her.
Qiao Chu also knew that at an upcoming parent-teacher meeting, Wang Qiuxia and Qiao Yue would be severely humiliated by Jiang Yixuan, regretting their past actions.
A female lead accepted as a special student with a scholarship? There’s no way she would have poor grades.
Qiao Chu was amused at the thought of dogs biting dogs—but there was a serious problem now.
She had skipped her scumbag father’s birthday banquet. Wang Qiuxia would definitely seize the opportunity to stir trouble. Seeing the villa windows brightly lit, she’d know immediately.
Qiao Chu reached for her pocket at the front door—no keys. She must have left them at the club.
Maybe she should just stay at a hotel? And perhaps order a male model to soothe her tired body and soul.
Just as she was lost in such thoughts, the front door swung open by itself, and a gloved hand pulled it from the inside.
The man was dressed in a crisp tailcoat, black obsidian cufflinks glinting at his sleeves. A pair of silver-framed glasses rested on his high nose. The angle he bowed at was just right.
“Miss, welcome home.”
Qiao Chu’s expression instantly turned sour. “Butler Wu, still not asleep at this hour?”
His voice remained gentle and refined, paired with a completely expressionless face. “Miss hasn’t returned, and I, Wu Zhe, am restless.”
He was the private financial advisor Qiao Chu’s mother left behind, managing the massive fortune her mother bequeathed her, and also the Qiao family mansion’s butler.
But he wasn’t truly “on her side.”
Qiao Chu called someone like Wu Zhe a “pure hatred warrior.”
He might appear polite and calm now, but once activated, he made no distinction between friend and foe—he could verbally tear her and the stepmother trio apart with a barrage of scathing words.
Seeing Qiao Chu walk into the living room, Wang Qiuxia, lounging in a posh “noblewoman drinking tea” pose on the sofa, couldn’t contain herself.
“You, really! Qihong’s birthday and you don’t come back—where have you been running off to? No matter what, he’s still your father! Such lack of filial piety…”
Qiao Chu let the words go in one ear and out the other, lazily yawning.
Wang Qiuxia raised her voice. “Now that you’re grown, you can’t act so wildly. Your stepmother took matters into her own hands and suspended your supplementary card—”
Suspend my supplementary card?
Qiao Chu: “I just went to pay respects at the grave. That doesn’t count as running wild.”